


Road Work Ahead? Uh yeah, I Sure Hope It Does

by A_Tomb_With_A_View



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alex Mercer Has Anxiety (Julie and the Phantoms), Alex just wants to hug his husband and not face the world, Asexual Bobby Wilson, Bobby wants to get drunk and be hugged, Drunken Shenanigans, F/F, F/M, I attempt to be romantic, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Reggie Peters Has Fibromyalgia (Julie and The Phantoms), Road Trip!, and reggie, aroace Bobby, aroace Nick, but healthily, especially luke, everyone Simps for Julie Molina, fun times, he/they willie, lots of pining, proposal, she/they flynn, there will be communication I promise, who can say if I succeeded
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:41:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29154501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Tomb_With_A_View/pseuds/A_Tomb_With_A_View
Summary: “Hey, hey,” Bobby yelled, scrambling up onto their table. “Guys! Lads! We’re at a bachelor party! Someone has to get married!”Reggie laughed and slumped against Luke, watching the way the world span around him with distant interest. “Someone needs to get a tattoo!”“Oh! Dibs!” Bobby slid back off the table, hooking an arm around Alex and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “‘Lex, ‘Lex, you should decide who gets married, since it’s your wedding.”“Greg and Lucy should get married,” Alex decided, finishing his vodka in one go. “And Bobbers should get the Sunset Curve logo on his pec.”
Relationships: Alex & Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Carrie & Flynn & Julie & Luke & Nick & Reggie, Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Bobby | Trevor Wilson & Nick, Flynn/Carrie Wilson, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson/Reggie Peters
Comments: 55
Kudos: 168
Collections: Julie and the Phantoms Bingo Challenge





	1. A gay, a pan, a bi, an ace, and a sapphic walk into a bar

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this has been bouncing around in my notes for like,,, ages   
> And then I got close to finishing this is why mom doesn’t fucking love you, and I realised I could totally do this for my next five chapter project, so here we are! I’m super excited for this, and I hope you enjoy!   
> As usual, the fibromyalgia/anxiety stuff is based off of my own personal experience :))   
> This will be for my pining square of the jatp bingo but not this chapter specifically there’s not too much of that :))

**[Alex’s Stag ‘do; 3 years ago]**

“Hey, hey,” Bobby yelled, scrambling up onto their table. “Guys! Lads! We’re at a bachelor party! Someone has to get married!” 

Reggie laughed and slumped against Luke, watching the way the world span around him with distant interest. “Someone needs to get a tattoo!” 

“Oh! Dibs!” Bobby slid back off the table, hooking an arm around Alex and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “‘Lex, ‘Lex, you should decide who gets married, since it’s your wedding.”

Alex, usually their most sensible, hummed in consideration. Usually they’d have Nick to balance them out a little bit, too, and remind them that they were in Florida, not Vegas, but Willie had claimed it was unfair for Alex to take both the aros, just like how Alex had claimed it was unfair for Willie to take both the lesbians, which led to them here; Alex’s eyes narrowing on Luke and Reggie as Bobby and Flynn cheered him on. “Greg and Lucy should get married,” Alex decided, finishing his vodka in one go. “And Bobbers should get the Sunset Curve logo on his pec.” 

Luke cackled, burying his head in Reggie’s shoulder, and Reggie was sure he felt him kiss his shoulder, but he was drunk enough that he just kissed Luke’s hair, instead of thinking on it. “Okay, okay! Which first?” 

Alex leaned across Bobby to steal Flynn’s whiskey. “Definitely the tattoos. We should all get ghost tattoos, too!” 

Flynn nodded excitedly. “I’ll text Care-bear and tell her to get Wills and that lot to do the same.” 

“You're a beautiful genius and I love you,” Alex told her solemnly, kissing her forehead. 

“As you should,” they agreed, typing frantically. 

Reggie grinned up at Luke. “You gonna dip me at the alter?” 

Luke ruffled his hair sloppily, practically poking Reggie in the eye what with how uncoordinated he was. “Sure, I will, Regbert. You gonna be my husband?” 

“Fuck yeah, Lukey. M’gonna marry you so hard.” Reggie didn’t look at his mouth, stubbornly maintaining eye contact. Luke was always weirdly pretty when he was drunk. He stopped being so single minded and focused on things, and just sort of  _ existed.  _

“Ew,” Bobby said, suddenly inches away, shitty lighting reflecting in his eyes. He was also pretty - their entire friendship group was pretty - but Reggie had stopped being able to think of him like that the first time they’d watched an X-rated romance film and Bobby had actually thrown up at the sex scene. “You’re disgusting.”

Reggie didn’t scream.

He yelped. Very masculine-ly. “Jesus  _ fuck,  _ Bobbert. Why do you feel the need to do that?”

Bobby shrugged and waved his empty shot glass in answer. “Flynn bought me a sambuca.”

“You want affection, too,” Luke translated, and held his arms out. They all politely ignored the glass of water he very nearly knocked onto the floor, and instead Reggie cooed as Bobby attempted to snuggle up, but ended up just face planting onto Luke’s chest. Only minutes later, Alex was plastered against Reggie’s side, cheek pressed against his, and Flynn was taking a photo before she tucked herself under his free arm. 

“So, are we doing this?” Bobby asked eventually, voice muffled from the awkward way his jaw was pressed against Luke’s chest. “I wanna get a tattoo, and Lexi should get his helix pierced, and you two should get married already.” 

Reggie gasped and prodded Alex’s arm. “You  _ should  _ get your ear pierced. Get a double!” 

“Oh my god,  _ yes,”  _ Alex breathed, eyes wide, frantically patting Flynn’s arm. “Call a piercer, pretty pretty please?” 

“On it, I’m on it,” they promised, pulling up a website and then calling the number. 

Bobby hummed, tapping on his phone. “Nick says he’s bringing his friend - Julie, remember Flynn mentioned her, then and Carrie were friends with her in elementary? To the wedding. He thinks you’ll like her, Luka, and I agree. She can sing like crazy, and she’s lovely.” 

“Can’t,” Luke mumbled into Reggie’s shoulder, having sagged back into him. “Marrying Reg.” 

“Okay, gays,” Flynn commanded, standing up. “To the tattoo parlour!”

The four them cheered and attempted to untangle themselves as they got to their feet, doing their best to clear up the mess of their table before they left. 

Alex weaved between them all as they made their way to the parlour only a couple blocks away, managing to bring up Willie approximately every three sentences. Usually Reggie - or at least Bobby - would give him shit for it, but they’d all agreed they’d let Alex have exactly two (2) full days of uninterrupted Willie-rambling, and tonight was the first. His wedding would be the second, because they’d figured it would be pretty cruel to  _ not  _ let him talk endlessly when they were becoming his spouse. 

Watching Bobby and Flynn get tattoos was nothing Reggie hadn’t done before, so instead he let Alex lay with his head in Reggie’s lap as he retold a story he’d brought up for the first time six rounds ago and did his best to card his fingers through Alex’s hair while his fingers were tingling and his arms felt like his jacket was lined with lead. This was his favourite part of being drunk - before his vision blurred, but when everything seemed a bit weighted, a bit funnier, and a bit slower. He’d always felt like he had too many thoughts to handle, and living in slo-mo for an hour was a fantastic way to identify any that needed to be considered when he had his mental faculties back in order.

Watching Alex and Luke get tattoos - and Alex get his helix pierced twice - was funnier, because they were both scared of needles and had a weird habit of clinging to each other when they were scared like Bobby hadn’t been keeping them all alive single handedly since they were eight, and because Alex was still managing to excitedly tell the piercer about how he was getting married in a week and he wanted to surprise his fiancé with the piercings because Willie  _ loved  _ piercings but was too bad with watching Alex be scared or in pain to ever take him to get them done. 

Then it was his turn, which was fun because the artist was  _ cute _ , and she kept asking him questions about the band and their music and if he lived in the area, and Luke let him play with his fingers while he coaxed Alex into telling him about Willie again after he got anxious about annoying them for the fourth time that night. 

From there it was onto the closest place that did weddings, with Flynn leading the way, because she was the only one of them with enough tolerance to actually still be able to read the map on her phone. 

Reggie let Bobby jump onto his back despite the painful pressure on his collarbone and ramble about the latest thing he’d been researching at four am when he couldn’t sleep and was regretting his decision to stop after his masters degree instead of continuing to pHD level when they’d finally got a sudden spike in their following with the band. From what Reggie could make out, he was pretty sure Bobby was talking about the photoexcitation of gaseous ions, but only two out of five words were currently making sense to him, so he didn’t put too much concentration towards understanding him. Bobby would either drop it and find something else to care about tomorrow, or reteach him once he had the wherewithal to dumb it down to make it accessible for someone with Reggie’s chemistry knowledge. 

“Wait!” Alex stopped them short just outside the doors to the chapel. “Rings!” 

“Fuck,” Bobby swore, rooting around in his pocket. “I have hair bobbles and elastic bands?” 

Luke shrugged. “Works for me. Regory, you cool with marrying me with a hair bobble?”

Reggie laughed and nodded, grabbing Flynn’s hand and swinging the door open. “Of course, Lucy.”

Alex clapped, then dragged Bobby and Luke inside, babbling about the cake, even though they’d all gone cake-tasting with him. 

“Ready to marry me, Roger?” Luke asked over his shoulder, like he didn’t have Alex in a headlock. 

Reggie grinned and spun Flynn like they were dancing. “You betcha.” 

——

**[Alex’s Wedding; 3 years ago]**

Julie Molina became Reggie’s favourite person within approximately thirty seconds of meeting her. She was pretty, and funny, and she sang at Flynn’s request, and her voice was so incredible that Luke stopped functioning for the whole song and a full five minutes afterwards. 

“So, Mr Peters,” Julie started, once the speeches and meals were out of the way, and they’d started mingling and dancing. “Spare me a dance?” 

Reggie grinned. “Of course, Miss Molina.” He offered his hand with a shallow bow. “Shall we?” 

She laughed and grabbed his hand. “So, I hear you’re the bassist?” 

He led her towards the dance floor, flashing Luke a thumbs up so he didn’t think he’d just disappeared. “Bassist and ultimate wingman,” he joked. Luke always gave him shit for being upfront when wingman-ing, but they all had to admit that the honesty often worked. “You seem pretty interested in Luke?” 

Julie hummed and looped her arms around his neck. “He  _ is  _ pretty,” she acknowledged. “I suppose. But, he also seems a bit… cocky?” 

“Oh, no.” Reggie shook his head, leading her carefully through the dance, trying his best to remember the lessons Alex had forced them all into. “He’s just dumb. Plus, if he was talking about music, then the arrogance is earned. Sometimes you just have to be proud of yourself. He’s - we’re - good enough to have earned it a bit. Just like you have, with that voice of yours.” 

Julie’s expression softened slightly, and a tinge of pink crawled up her cheeks. “That makes sense. And, uh. Thanks.”

“And he  _ is  _ cute,” he reminded her, letting her take the lead after stumbling a little. “That’s always an important thing to think about.” 

She laughed and nodded. “You’re not wrong. And you seem sweet, and Alex is lovely, so I suppose if you think he’s worth hanging out with, he must be okay.” 

“What about Bobby?” Reggie joked. Honestly, Bobby’s opinions on people tended to be the least clouded, even though Alex’s first instinct was almost always correct, but Reggie knew Bobby often came across as the most intimidating of all of them, even though he was a gem under the many,  _ many,  _ layers of wit and snark. “Does him finding Luke not-too-annoying mean anything?” 

Julie waved a hand back and forth. “Bobby and Carrie would one hundred percent hang out with Luke for several years to convince me it was safe to ask him out, and then when he turned out to be an ass, they’d tell me it was revenge for spilling Indian ink on their art project in third grade.”

Reggie had to stop dancing just to take a minute to fully digest that, eyes wide. “Oh my god... Oh my  _ god.  _ You’re right. You’re so, so right.” 

“I know,” she agreed, grinning. “One time, Carrie screenshotted every text I ever sent to our group chat about the  _ huge  _ crushes I had - it’s honestly embarrassing how long I liked Nick, and then there was this girl from my Home Ec class who I swore I was in love with - and then gave it to me in this proper leather bound journal-”

“Like in Brooklyn-99?” Reggie interjected, guiding her back to the table. 

“Yeah, exactly!” Julie nodded, flashing Luke a shy smile as she sat down. “And when I was like,  _ what the fuck,  _ Carrie was like,  _ oh, this is for the time you told Bobby about that girl I liked in sixth grade.  _ The Wilsons will still be holding grudges and enacting long term revenge plans when we’re all six feet under.” 

Reggie choked on his champagne. “You’re totally right.” He whipped around to find Flynn. “Flynn, my love, how dare you keep this absolute  _ angel  _ from us all these years?” 

Flynn looked up from where they’d been looking at Carrie’s phone. “Uh, because I’ve only just decided you’re worthy of her company?” 

Reggie paused. “Yeah. That makes sense. Lulu still needs a little character development, methinks.”

Luke spluttered indignantly. “Shut the fuck up, Rob, you put mustard in my coffee, like, a week ago.” 

“I stand by that decision.” Reggie shrugged. “You deserved it.” 

“You did,” Alex said, holding the back of Reggie’s chair. He bent down to press a kiss to the top of Reggie’s head. “What are you up to now, trouble?” 

“‘Lex!” Reggie twisted around to face Alex. “You’re married! How do you feel?” 

Alex blushed and grinned. “Pretty fucking incredible.” 

“Willie looks amazing,” Julie chimed in. “So do you.” 

“Thanks, Julie.” Alex held his hand out for a fist bump. “And they do.” He sighed and turned to scan the crowd for Willie, holding his hand out beckoningly when he found him. “And he does. God, that’s my  _ husband,  _ guys.” 

“Fuck yeah, they are.” Bobby appeared out of nowhere, clapping Alex on the shoulders. “Proud of you, fucko.”

Alex rolled his eyes, but his smile didn’t dim in the slightest. “Me too, man. Me too.”

Bobby grinned and leaned up on tiptoes to kiss Alex’s temple then dropped down next to Nick. “Oh, hey, Molina. What’s up?” 

Julie waved. “Hi, Bobby. Reggie was just telling me about the mustard he put in Luke’s coffee?” 

“Oh, that was well-deserved.” He nodded. “I’ve got a photo of his face somewhere, I’ll send you it.” 

“You’re my favourite,” Julie promised. “Except for Reggie.” 

Reggie grinned. “Aw, thanks, Julie. You’re my favourite, too.”

Luke made a wounded sound. “My best friend and the prettiest girl at the dance, choosing each other over me. How will I go on?”

“Lucas,” Willie warned, wrapped his arms around Alex from behind and kissing his shoulder lightly. “No harassing anyone at my wedding.” 

“Yeah, Lucas,” Carrie echoed, making an  _ im watching you  _ gesture. “Julie punched someone in the face for me once. Don’t think I wouldn’t kill you for her.”

“Hey, this wedding is about Allie and Wills,” Luke protested. “No need to focus on me.” 

Reggie rolled his eyes fondly. “If you had your way,  _ everything  _ would be about you, man. We love you, though, it’s okay.”

——

**[Luke and Julie’s first date 2 ½ years ago]**

“Reg, Reg, Reg,” Luke whispered into the phone as soon as Julie disappeared. “Oh my god, dude, I think this is going well!” 

“Oh, Lucy!” Reggie’s voice was tinny through the phone, but it was as comforting as always. “That’s awesome, man! I’m so happy for you!” 

“It’s just the first date,” he joked. “We’re hardly getting married, yet.”

Reggie pushed on regardless. “You’ll have a gorgeous wedding. We’ll play for you, obviously. Willie can officiate, because good  _ Lord,  _ i could listen to them speak for hours, and-”

“Reg, man,” Luke interrupted, trying not to laugh too loudly. “I gotta go, Jules will be back in a minute. But… thanks. You’re the only reason this happened.”

Reggie snorted. “Well, duh. You were never gonna be able to get over yourselves just between the two of you. You’re both useless.”

Luke smiled, watching the door for Julie. “We’re very grateful,” he promised. “See you when I get home, bro.” 

“See you, Luka! Have fun, don’t stay out too late,” Reggie joked before hanging up. 

“Was that Reggie?” Julie asked him when she returned to the table. “I hope you were thanking your husband thoroughly and promising him the world for managing to get us to communicate.”

“Of course, Jules.” Luke nodded solemnly, taking her hand across the table. “I promise we’re trying to figure out a way to get divorced without going back to Miami. Now, tell me, you mentioned a potential record deal, the other day?” 

Julie lit up immediately, and something warm sparked in his chest. She really was beautiful, especially when she was excited about her music, and Luke could hardly believe she’d agreed to go on a date with him. “I actually received another email from them, since I told you about it. You wouldn’t  _ believe  _ what they want.”

“Ooh, now you have to tell me.”

——

**[Luke and Julie’s first anniversary 2 years ago]**

“Mr Patterson, fancy seeing you here,” Julie joked when Luke arrived at her door in a suit. The sleeves itched, and he wasn’t a fan of the collar, but Julie loved the theatre, and Carrie and Bobby - rich kids - informed him this was appropriate theatre-wear, so he was going to tough it out, even if all three of his idiots had laughed for half an hour when he’d first tried it on. 

“Purely coincidence, Miss Molina,” he managed, practically breathless, and offered his hand. Julie looked  _ incredible.  _ She’d gone shopping for the dress with Carrie and Alex and Flynn, which really had told Luke already everything he needed to know about how amazing it would be, but he still hadn’t been prepared for  _ this.  _ “Wow… Jules… you look…  _ wow.”  _

Julie giggled and leaned up to kiss his cheek. “You look pretty amazing too, Luke,” she told him fondly, cradling his face for a moment. “Now, are you going to tell me what the surprise is, yet? Why we’re so dressed up?” 

“Absolutely not,” Luke teased, pulling her towards the car carefully. “You’ll find out when we get there.” 

“You’re the worst,” she informed him, tucking herself under his arm regardless. “I hope you know that. I’m gonna run away and join the circus with Reg and Nick if you keep this behaviour up.”

Luke sighed dramatically, opening her door for her. “Carrie and Flynn would find out which circus, and I’d come and watch every performance. What would you do, hm? Knife throwing? Trapezium? Oh! I know! Ringmaster. Voice and face like yours deserve to be front and centre.” 

Julie blushed and elbowed him lightly, then climbed into the car. “Shush, you.”

He grinned and quickly walked around to join her, leaning across the gearstick to kiss her gently. “If you say so, dearest.” 

She rolled her eyes fondly and pulled him back in to kiss him properly. “I love you.” 

He stammered for a moment when she pulled back, like he always did. Honestly, he’d thought, the first time this had happened, that he’d get used to it, eventually be able to have her kiss him like that and tell him she loved him without him losing his goddamn mind for several minutes, but he’d yet to overcome it. Truth be told, he didn’t mind it too much. “I love you too,” he got out eventually. “Ready to go?” 

“Yup.” Julie nodded. “You’re definitely not gonna tell me where we’re going?” 

Luke smiled slyly as he pulled out onto the road. “Absolutely not.” 

——

**[Julie and the Phantoms final tour destination 6 months ago]**

“Thank you so much Chicago, we’ve been Julie amd the Phantoms! Good night!” Julie yelled, grinning at Luke tiredly. She adored touring, she really did, and playing with her boys - her  _ morons -  _ was exhilarating every single time, even when Bobby was tripping over leads and Alex was breaking drumsticks and splintering his hands, and Reggie was shredding until his fingers bled, and Luke was attempting to write songs  _ as  _ he played. It was just… she missed home, and she missed her sleep schedule, and she missed wasting away entire evenings with Flynn and Carrie on the kitchen floor with tubs of ice cream and bottles of wine, and she missed being able to speak without worrying about losing her voice. 

She was definitely glad it was finally over, even if she’d thoroughly enjoyed every moment. 

Reggie and Bobby were cheering as soon as they got off stage, Bobby throwing himself straight onto the sofa, Reggie following more gingerly to avoid another incident with his ribs. “Oh, man, am I glad we’re done,” Alex said loudly, starfishing out on the floor. “I want a burger, my husband, and seventy two hours of sleep, in that order.” 

“Aw, man,” Reggie complained. “I wanted Willie hugs. Their arms are so comfy.” 

“That’s why I married him, Regibald,” Alex joked, closing his eyes. “Get your own.” 

Luke snorted and sprawled out on the bean bag, holding his arms out to Julie, and kissed her forehead and then cheek when she curled into him. “I want Nick to make me a stack of pancakes.”

Julie groaned, as did the others. “I missed Nick’s pancakes,” she agreed. “And Carrie’s mudslides.”

“I would  _ kill _ for a mudslide,” Bobby agreed, voice thick like he was already half asleep. It wouldn’t really surprise her at this point, though she was definitely jealous of his ability to doze off wherever, even if it was a side effect of never sleeping for long. “Oh, god, someone remind me to take Flynn out drinking, I miss them and their crazy tolerance for gin.” 

Julie closed her eyes and rested her head on Luke’s chest, letting the steady thump of his heart guide her breathing. “I love you,” she mumbled into his arm.

“Love you too,” he whispered, kissing her hair. “We’ll get back to the hotel, soon, then you can sleep.”

“Sounds good.” She nodded, then opened one eye enough to look at Reggie. “If you don’t take me for pizza at Pitfire the  _ second  _ we step foot back in LA, I’m hiring the best divorce lawyer in LA so Luke wins everything, and then I’m spending all your money buying up pizza stocks until I can ban you from every pizza place in the city.”

“One, Reej doesn’t have enough money for that,” Alex said tiredly, exhaustion creeping into his voice. “And secondly, are you two still not divorced, yet?”

Luke shrugged, whispering an apology when it jolted Julie. She squeezed his hand lightly to let him know it was okay. “It’s a thirty-eight hour continuous drive back to Florida to get a copy of the wedding certificate since you puked on ours, man. We keep meaning to, but then we don’t have like a full week to just disappear for. We’re gonna do it this summer.”

Reggie nodded lazily, making a sound of agreement instead of saying anything. 

Julie yawned. “Can we go? I’m so tired.”

The four of them all agreed, at various stages of coherent. Julie stumbled to her feet, leaning on tip toes to stretch out. “God, let’s not tour for, like, ages.”

“Agreed.”

“Seconded.”

“Genuinely,  _ fuck  _ hotels.”

“I agree.”

She laughed and grabbed Luke’s hand, then Reggie’s when he started stumbling in a worryingly diagonal line. “To bed!” 

“If someone wakes me before one pm tomorrow, I’m suing,” Bobby threatened, the effect of his glare ruined by how much of his weight Alex was clearly having to support.

Julie nodded sympathetically. “Sure, Bobbers. Sure.” 

Reggie and Luke laughed either side of her, and she tugged them a little closer, bone-deep tiredness dissipating for a second to make room for unbridled happiness. The tour had definitely been worth the fatigue, just for the moments like that. 

——

**[Luke proposing to Julie; 6 hours ago]**

“I’ve got this,” Luke insisted to himself, adjusting his tie carefully.

“Fuck, yeah, you do,” Reggie agreed, appearing behind him. “C’mon, man. It’s easy-peasy. You walk out there, being your wonderful, weird, little self, and she’s like  _ oh my god, Luke, you’re so handsome,  _ and then you’re like,  _ oh thanks, baby, you look gorgeous. There’s something I wanna say to you,  _ and then she’s all like  _ what is it?  _ And you’re all like  _ I’ve been in love with you for two years and I wanna marry you so bad, will you marry me?  _ And she’s all like  _ yes! Luke! I will! I love you!  _ And then you both go live happy ever after.” Reggie’s impressions were somehow always better than Luke expected, even if the high pitch of Julie’s voice and the low pitch of Luke’s was massively exaggerated. 

Luke stifled a laugh and turned around the punch his shoulder. “You’re so fucking weird, man.”

Reggie shrugged. “Yeah, well. You love me.”

“And you better love us,” Alex and Bobby said in unison, carefully carrying the final box of Julie’s things into her and Luke’s new apartments. “We’re musicians not weightlifters.” 

“You're a drummer and… Bobby,” Luke dismissed, kissing both their cheeks in thanks anyway. “You’re supposed to be strong.”

“I hit things for a living, I don’t carry them,” Alex protested, dropping down onto the floor when they’d put the box down. “I’m not that kind of strong.”

“You started going to the gym after your first date with Willie because you wanted to be able to carry them,” Reggie disagreed. “You absolutely are that kind of strong.”

Bobby pulled a face. “You’re so weird.”

“Thanks, Bobman.” Alex held an arm out, smiling tiredly when Bobby joined him on the floor. “So, Lub, you’re proposing to Julie. How do we feel?” 

Luke shrugged and perched cross legged on the arm of the sofa. “Is it too soon? We’ve only just moved in here together.”

“Yeah, but we’ve been touring,” Reggie said. “And then we all lived together at Willex’s for a bit because of all the uncertainty around what we were going next, and then Al and Wills decided they wanted a house instead of an apartment, and decided to go all out and have it built, so we all lived with Care and Flynn and Nick, who now lives with Beebob and me, which is where you’ve been living while this place got sorted. So, it’s not for lack of trying, or time, and for most of that time Jules was with us as well.”

“Exactly.” Bobby nodded, shooting Luke a thumbs up. “Besides, she’s just as arse over teakettle for you as you are for her. She will definitely want to marry you.”

“They’re right,” Alex agreed. “And you were the one who gave  _ me  _ this speech, so you know it as well. C’mon, dude. You’ve got this.” 

Luke nodded slowly, then jumped and grabbed his phone when it chimed. “Okay, Jules is here, boys, you gotta hide and find a position where you can take good photos because Flynn and Carrie have threatened me extensively in case I don’t have good photos.” 

“Sir yes sir!” The three of them chirped, scrambling to grab plastic covers off of furniture and price tags of new pieces of decor as they found hiding spots. 

Luke breathed out steadily. He could do this. It was just him and Jules - and three of their closest friends/bandmates, but really it wouldn’t be right if they weren’t here for this - and he swore he’d been in love with her since the first time she’d smiled at him at Alex’s wedding three years ago. 

“Hey, Luke,” Julie said as soon as she arrived, kissing him gently before looking around in awe. “Woah, you and the guys did an awesome job, this place looks incredible.”

“It was definitely more the boys than me,” Luke admitted, wrapping his arms around her. “How’re Ray and Tia?”

“Dad misses Reggie,” Julie told him, hugging back. “As always. Tia told me to tell you that you owe her afternoon tea at the place you always go to, and not to stay away so long next time.”

“I’ll facetime her tomorrow,” he promised. “Dance with me?” 

Julie grinned and nodded. “Always. Are we playing music?”

Luke pretended to consider. “How about we make some?” 

“Make some, like, you pick a key and I pick a tempo and we write a song right now, or make some like we sing?” She asked, walking backwards to the centre of the room.

He laughed and followed, taking her hand and resting his free hand on her waist. “I think we could manage the former, don’t you?” 

“Of course we can.” Julie nodded determinedly, cupping the back of his neck with the hand that wasn’t holding his. “Key of G sharp.” 

“Ooh, interesting.” Luke grinned, and thought for a moment. “... sixty three beats per minute.”

“You’re so random.” She kissed his jaw lightly. “I’ve got a metronome on my phone, let me just set it up.”

Luke waited for her to set it going, then reeled her back in. He hummed the first tune thay came to mind gently, waiting for the moment when her eyes sparked with an idea. He could probably spend forever watching her write songs. 

“ _ I found a boy _ ,” she sang quietly, eyebrows drawn together as she considered it. “Wait, no.  _ I found a love for me, oh darling just dive right in _ -”

“ _ And follow me lead _ ,” he continued, and she took up the humming as they started swaying with her to the song. “ _ Well, I found a girl, beautiful and sweet- _ ”

“ _ Oh I never knew you were the someone, waiting for me.”  _

They continued like that, getting braving with the dancing as they settled into the melody, bouncing back and forth with who was humming and who was singing, and also with who was leading. As Julie started singing a hook, Luke let her spin him out and then dropped to one knee in a move that was honestly way smoother than he could’ve ever planned for. “ _ Darling, just hold my hand.” _

He saw the moment Julie got what was going on, and grabbed the ring box from where his pocket. “ _ Be my girl, I’ll be your man.”  _

Julie clapped her hands over her mouth as he opened the box, and he grinned up at her nervously, feeling his eyes start to sting with tears. “ _ I see my future in your eyes… _ Jules, Julianna, Julia,” he started, laughing wetly when she snorted. “Honestly, you have Reg and Flynn to thank for this not being super public and full of flowers and diamond and church choirs. But, I’m glad they talked me out of this, because this here? This is us, babe, and in five, ten, twenty, fifty years, I want to still be dancing around our living room and writing songs with you on the fly, and thanking whatever’s out there that you decided to take a chance on me, and that you continue to take chances on me. So, JJ, Jelly-baby, Julie-bean.  _ Julie.  _ Will you marry me?” 

——

**[Engagement Party; Now]**

“So, when did you dickheads get divorced?” Bobby asked, sprawled out across their new couch, feet in Nick’s lap and head in Flynn’s. “I didn’t notice you going missing for a week, I would’ve invited Flynn over for a bender.” 

Luke felt his stomach drop. He  _ knew  _ there’d been something he’d not done, and a glance at Reggie showed he was in the same boat. “Uh…”

Alex choked on his champagne. “You haven’t got divorced, yet? Mary, mother of  _ fucking  _ Joseph, what is wrong with you both?” He buried his face in Willie’s shoulder. “What’s wrong with me? I should’ve known you’re too dumb for this, and made sure you got divorced before Luke got engaged.” 

Luke laughed nervously. “It’s cool. We’ll. uh.”

“We’re going on a road trip,” Julie intervened. “Me, Reg and Luke. To Florida. Luke hates flying, I’ve always wanted to see the Keys, and Reg is needed for divorce purposes.”

Reggie cleared his throat. “Are you sure, Jules? I don’t wanna impose on you guys for, like, a week.”

“Nonsense.” Julie shook her head, raising an eyebrow at Luke, who obediently did the same. “You’re one of our closest friends, Reg. We’d love to have you along.”

Flynn snorted. “God, you are way too good for all of us, Jelly-baby. If Care-bear proposed to me whilst she was still married I would’ve thrown a fit.”

Carrie rolled her eyes and kissed Flynn’s temple on her way passed as she returned from the kitchen. “You’re the only one mean enough to put up with me, you know that, babe.”

Bobby made a retching sound. “Nickelodeon, we should road trip. Far,  _ far  _ away from these lunatics.”

“Agreed,” Nick said, nodding quickly. “I can’t take much more of Carrie being soft, it’s weird.”

“Aw, no, it’s cute,” Willie said, carding his fingers through Alex’s hair soothingly. “Both Carrie being soft and you idiots. Your plan is dumb as fuck, and you really need better organising skills, but a road trip with one of your best friends will be cute. Besides, if I was gonna road trip with anyone as well as Alex, I’d probably go with Reggie as well.”

Julie nodded firmly. “As I said at your wedding, Reggie is my favourite.”

Luke smiled and kissed her shoulder. It was never going to stop making his chest feel warm and fit to burst how much Julie loved his family. “I guess it’s settled, then? You down, Regifer?” 

Reggie grinned and nodded, letting Carrie curl up into his side. “Fuck yeah. Florida here we come.”


	2. What To Do When You Realise You’re In Love With Your Best Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke wasn’t expecting Flynn and Carrie to go as hard with the road trip planning as they did.   
> He probably should’ve, to be fair, it was very in character for them.   
> Still, being handed an itinerary by Carrie as she brushed past him, a whirlwind of scheduling and reservations, was a little jarring.   
> If the looks on Julie and Reggie’s faces were anything to go by, they were similarly overwhelmed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I promise I did actually plan to update last week, and then I was gonna do two chapters this week yk make up for it, but then we had a power cut that latest like eleven hours, so you get one chapter a week late ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ I’m very sorry.  
> Anywho, enjoy some pining :))

Luke wasn’t expecting Flynn and Carrie to go as hard with the road trip planning as they did. 

He probably should’ve, to be fair, it was very in character for them. 

Still, being handed an itinerary by Carrie as she brushed past him, a whirlwind of scheduling and reservations, was a little jarring. 

If the looks on Julie and Reggie’s faces were anything to go by, they were similarly overwhelmed. 

“Okay, so we’ve planned this so you can make it to Florida in three days of driving, but that’s some serious mileage, and it means you’re going to have to drive for pretty fucking huge stretches of time,” Carrie said, once she’d kissed Flynn hello and made sure to properly sock Bobby in the shoulder. It wasn’t the face, or the kidney, so they were practically hugging hello. 

Flynn nodded, booping Reggie’s nose lightly. “You, monsieur, are gonna need to either suck it up and bunk with the Mr and Mrs, or you’re gonna have to suck it up and take a collapsible cot, got it?” 

Reggie grinned, going cross eyed to focus on her finger. “Yeah, I think I can manage that.”

Luke snorted, reaching around Julie to push Reggie’s head forward playfully. “‘Course you can. You gonna bunk with us, button?” 

“Oh yeah,” Reggie joked. “You know me, I always love being in the middle of a beautiful couple. It’s why I crash with Alex and Willie every few days, and why sometimes I go cuddle with Beebob when he’s reading articles on psychedelics.” 

Bobby spluttered indignantly, looking up from what Luke was pretty sure was an article on psychedelics. “I’m not dating an article on psychedelics!” 

Carrie cleared her throat. “ _ Anyways.” _

Reggie scratched the back of his neck sheepishly and Luke quickly apologised, knowing Carrie wouldn’t continue until he did, and then she’d blame him for the time lost.

Carrie smiled. It was kind of terrifying, mainly because Luke had seen her attempt to dislocate Bobby’s shoulder while smiling like that. “So, tomorrow morning you’re gonna be driving to Phoenix, right?” 

Luke nodded slowly. “I’ll drive first, Reg and Jules are  _ not  _ morning people. How long will that take?” 

“That’s about six and a half hours,” Flynn answered, poking Carrie until she obligingly sat down, then curled into her side. “You’ll have a couple hours in Phoenix, and there’s a musical instrument museum there, and, like, hot air balloon rides you could do to look around?” They suggested, resting their head on Carrie’s shoulder.

Julie’s eyes widened, and she looked quickly between Reggie and Luke. “We gotta do the hot air balloon ride, guys, c’mon.”

Reggie nodded eagerly. “We hafta, Lukey, a hot air balloon ride is on my bucket list.”

“Hey, I wanna do a hot air balloon ride, too,” Luke agreed immediately. “You don’t have to convince me.”

Flynn snorted. “Children. Anyway, so after a couple of hours in Phoenix, you have another six hours of driving, and then you should hit El Paso. We’ve already booked you a hotel, but you can grab dinner, take Reg here line dancing or whatever country bumpkins like to do.”

Reggie gasped, and flashed Luke the  _ cutest  _ pleading expression he’d ever seen. “Oh my god,” he breathed. “We gotta go line dancing, please please please?” 

Julie gave in even before Luke did, which was impressive considering how little effort Luke put towards it. “Of course we can go line dancing, Reg. Could hardly take you to Texas and  _ not  _ take you line dancing, could we?”

Reggie grinned and squeezed Julie in a hug. “Thank you.”

Carrie coughed pointedly. “Anyway. So, after El Paso, you’re gonna drive for around eight hours across to San Antonio. Depending on how early you’re willing to get up and how late you’re willing to arrive, you could maybe explore the caverns there?” 

Luke hummed. “That would be cool.”

“But then you’ve got a ten hour drive to Biloxi,” Flynn said. “You’d be arriving at one in the morning even if you didn’t take a break at all.” 

“Oh shit, Nevermind then.” Luke winced.

“Yeah…” Flynn shrugged. “Maybe you could compress your other days on the way back and split the drive differently?” 

“Yeah, that sounds cool. I’d love to explore a natural cavern, that would be amazing. So, what do we do after Biloxi?” Julie asked, pressing her cheek against Luke’s shoulder.

Carrie thought for a moment. “Uh, shit. Oh, yeah. So it’s a nine hour drive to Orlando - no Disneyland,” she added, pointing an accusatory finger at Reggie. 

Reggie stuck his lower lip out in a pout. For a moment, Luke was overcome with the absurd urge to brush his thumb across it. He shook the thought off. “We can go to Disney once we’re divorced, man.” 

“Promise?” Reggie asked, looking between him and Julie. 

Julie huffed a laugh. “I am stealing your husband. I guess for that I can take you to Disneyland.” 

“That’s true,” Reggie agreed. “I’ll take steak and lobster at the Palme D’Or as I sign the papers, as well thanks. And I’m taking Shredley.” His eyes went shiny and Luke’s stomach plummeted momentarily, and he sighed in relief when Reggie’s next words were about the shredder. “You’re not taking Shredley, okay?” 

“Dude… are you crying about the band shredder?” Bobby asked. 

Luke jumped. It wasn’t usual for him to forget Bobby was there, despite the man’s weird preference for just sitting in silence for long stretches of time, but he’d gotten a little caught up in watching Julie - and Reggie - get so excited for their trip. 

Reggie wiped his eyes dramatically. “Julie is stealing my husband, and Willie stole my best friend, the least I want is my fucking shredder.” 

Bobby gaped at him. “And what am I? The fucking middle child?” 

“If you’re offering to marry me Bobbert, then fucking commit to it,” Reggie demanded, crossing his arms over his chest. “I want flowers, and a really big ring, and a shredder, since Lukey is probably gonna steal Shredley from me in the divorce.” 

“You don’t even use the shredder!” Bobby protested. “You used it once!” 

“ _ Him,”  _ Reggie corrected insistently. “And I’ve decided I’m not marrying you, because you’re a bitch.” 

Nick appeared from the kitchen, a mug in each hand. “I mean, I’d say you’d probably not marry him because you’re a cuddly fucker and this prickly bastard despises human contact until he’s seven shots in, but go off I guess.” 

Reggie paused. “Yeah. That’s fair.” He turned back to Flynn and Carrie with an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. What happens after Orlando?” 

Carrie lifted her head from where she’d buried it in Flynn’s hair, shoulders still shaking with restrained laughter. “Oh. Um, it’s a five hour drive to Miami, and then you’re all set.” 

“Oh, that’s not too bad,” Julie said. “I mean, the second day will probably kill us, that’s what, seventeen hours of driving? Whose car are we even gonna take for that not to be awful?” 

Bobby snorted, and when they all turned to look at him he was sat cross legged on the arm of the sofa, mug of tea cradled in both hands. “Oh, don’t give me that look. Our dad is a multi-millionaire, or whatever the fuck he is now. Obviously we can get you a decent car.”

“Aw.” Julie took Luke’s hand and then Reggie’s, tugging them both in close. “Look at our son, showing affection in the only way he knows how. I’m so proud.”

Luke followed her lead and let go of her hand so he could wrap one arm around the both of them and press a kiss to the top of Julie’s head. “We’ve done such a good job. I’m so proud of us.”

Reggie rested his head on Luke’s shoulder. “They grow up so fast. Just yesterday he was squaring up with his own reflection.”

Bobby scowled into his tea. “This is aphobic, and I hope you all feel like horrible people.” 

Nick nodded solemnly. “I can confirm. Absolutely despicable behaviour.” 

“Oh, you know we love you, Bobbit,” Luke reminded him fondly. “But if we just came out and said it you’d have an aneurysm.”

Bobby sighed heavily. “It’s the childhood trauma,” he said in agreement, accepting the digestive Nick passed him.

“Hey, I’ve got that too, you’re not special,” Reggie complained. “I’ve got a husband, and a child. I’ve even got a shredder.”

“I’m literally two months younger than you, Ridge, and the processes that normally go into children and husband having aren’t exactly my thing,” Bobby reminded him. “And Shredley is the band shredder, not just yours.”

Luke gasped dramatically and pulled Reggie closer as Julie laughed. “Robert Wilson, you apologise to your father right now.” 

——

“Right, kids.” Luke shoved his bag on top of Julie’s suitcase and Reggie’s duffle. “Are we ready to go?”

“Fuck yeah,” Julie slapped the roof and grinned at Luke, ring sparkling in the early morning sunlight.

As always, Luke’s breath caught in his throat. It always shocked him, on some level, how fucking  _ beautiful  _ Julie was, even now, in a t-shirt Luke was ninety percent sure she’d stolen from Alex, and shorts that had been shared amongst the nine of them so much that Luke genuinely didn’t even remember who’d originally bought them. 

“Absolutely,” Reggie agreed, from somewhere on the other side of the car. “Jules, I’m stealing your fiancé’s biggest hoodie, I hope you didn’t want it, but I’m cuter than you, so.” 

Luke took a minute too respond, too unused to hearing the word fiancé. Jesus fucking Christ, he was Julie’s  _ fiancé.  _ “Hey,” he managed eventually. “You so are not!” 

“Oh, Julie’s prettier than me, for sure,” Reggie agreed, appearing at Julie’s shoulder with Luke’s hoodie practically drowning him. Luke was shorter than Reggie, but the only way hoodies really worked for him was when they were loose enough that they didn’t constrict him at all, and with as skinny as Reggie was, he almost disappeared in it. 

Luke had to admit, he did look pretty fucking cute.

“But I’m way cuter,” Reggie continued, resting his chin on Julie’s shoulder and sticking his lower lip out like he had the day before. 

Julie rolled her eyes, grinning. “Sure you are, Reg. Just get in the car.” 

“Yes, ma’am.” Reggie saluted them both lazily and crawled into the backseat. 

Luke held his arms out to Julie, dropping a kiss on her forehead when she walked into them. “You ready to come see me get divorced, sunshine?” 

Julie leaned up on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “I’m sure you’re very sad about seeing such a wonderful marriage end, but I, for one, can’t wait.” 

Luke snorted and leaned forward to kiss her properly. “Me either.” 

——

Sure, Luke hating aeroplanes was the reason this whole thing was a six day round trip instead of a two flight-one day thing, but good  _ god  _ did he love driving for so long. Even if he didn’t hate flying, he’d probably still have chosen to drive. 

There was the first… two hours or so, that’s just fun. They played their album, first, but then they branched out. Luke allowed one country playlist from Reggie and one pop playlist that he was fairly sure Alex made for Julie’s twenty first birthday, and to round it all off he had a playlist that he’d been carefully curating over the years with the help of Nick and Bobby, who, tragically, are the only people with taste he can regularly and consistently trust. Their singing was probably dreadful, and the voice coach their manager made them see to keep themselves on top form would likely have an aneurysm if they could see the three of them, but Luke had loved Reggie since he was old enough to have a word for it, and the road since he was old enough to see over the wheel, and Julie since he was old enough to ask her on a date without stumbling over his words and his feet, and singing since he’d been old enough to recreate the sounds his mom made when she was trying to get him to sleep. 

After the first couple of hours, there was less frantic dancing and belting to notes they’re not supposed to sing without extensive warm up sessions, and it became more just… Luke and his fiancée and his best friend/husband, chatting and bickering and just… being. 

“So, do we have any bets for when Flynn and Carrie are finally gonna get engaged?” Reggie asked, somewhere past the exit sign for San Bernardino. “Because, I know Carrie has a ring, because she took me and Wills and Al ring shopping, and I know Flynn has a ring because I found it trying to find the flannel they stole from me, but both of those things were more than a year ago.” 

Luke snorted, turning the music down. “Got no clue, man.” 

“Aw, you gotta know something,” Reggie persisted. “Everyone knows you’re Carrie’s bad day go-to, and Jules and Flynn are the bestest best friends to ever best friend.” 

Julie twisted in her chair, smile fond. “I know things,” she said mysteriously. “But I’m not allowed to tell you.”

Reggie sighed dramatically. “You’re the worst.”

“I know.” Julie nodded, leaning through the gap between the seats to give Reggie a sympathetic squeeze to the shoulder. “How will you ever cope?” 

“How do you always end up finding these things out, anyways?” Luke asked. “I mean… you  _ always  _ know. And I know you knew about me proposing to Jules, because you helped, but I’ve never once seen you be surprised about anything.” 

“Oh.” Reggie blinked, then shrugged. “I don’t know, actually. I guess people just like to tell me things.” 

“You are a great listener,” Luke allowed. “But there’s gotta be more to it than that.”

“I force myself into people’s personal space and then I lay there for hours and they decide that I should pay for that with listening,” Reggie decided after a moment of thinking. “And I’m okay with that. Except with Bobert, but I’m his favourite, and me texting him good morning and asking him if he’s had breakfast is essentially the same thing as forcing myself into his personal space.”

“Are you…” Julie squinted. “Are you mom-friending our mom friend?” 

Luke recoiled. “Did you just call Roberto our mom friend? Jules, sunshine, what the fuck?” 

Julie raised both eyebrows, glancing between the two of them. Reggie looked just as confused as Luke felt.

“He pesters you into eating and sleeping and drinking water?” She said slowly, like they were being thick.

“Well, yeah,” Luke agreed. “But that’s just… what sensible friends do?” 

Julie’s eyes widened slightly as she seemed to realise they were serious. “He calls us all once a day, including Al, even though Al is a married man living with his husband, to make sure we’ve taken your medications, made any appointments we might have, and for us to vent if something didn’t go well, like song writing, or figuring out the notes for something. He also does none of these things for himself and screeches incoherently if we try to make him be sensible, which honestly is just another mom-friend marker.” 

Luke whistled lowly, keeping his eyes on the road but hoping the dawning realisation was evident. “Holy shit.”

“Bobman’s our mom friend,” Reggie whispered. “My entire worldview is shifting.”

“Same, bro, same.”

——

“Okay, gays, we don’t have time to do a hot air balloon flight, they’re three and a half hours and that’s not including like safety information and getting tickets and eating and stuff,” Julie informed them once she’d returned from the tourist information office while the pair of them had popped to get ice cream. “But we can still go to that music museum Flynn told us about.”

Luke chewed his lip. “If we sacrifice the cavern exploring on the way back we could do it then?” 

Reggie nodded. “I’d rather do that, but if you wanna do the caves, Jules, that’s totally fine.” 

“No, no, I definitely wanna do the hot air balloon.” Julie leaned forward to grab her ice cream off Luke. “So, music museum?” 

Luke nodded slowly. “Sounds good to me.”

“I googled it, apparently we should start downstairs?” Reggie told them as they started walking in that general direction. “Everyone says to spend at least five hours or more, but… I don’t know, man, can you imagine spending five hours in a museum?” 

Julie grabbed Luke’s free hand and laced her fingers with his. “I mean, yeah? Dad took us to the MOMA once and we were in there for  _ ages.”  _

Luke swung their hands between them. “We don’t have five hours anyway,” he reminded them. “We’ve only got two and a bit. Think you can manage that, Reg?”

“Yeah, totally.” Reggie nodded. 

——

They did not managed two hours. 

It was a really cool museum, Luke had to admit, and the bits they’d seen had been fascinating, but he’d always been more drawn to composition and performance than music history and theory, and he lost interest around the same time Reggie did. Julie looked like she could probably keep going for the full five hours, but when she caught sight of how antsy Luke imagined he and Reggie were probably getting, she quickly dragged them to the exhibit she really wanted to see, and then ushered them out. 

“Okay, so I’ll come back here with Flynn and Carrie some time,” she suggested once they were back in the car, this time with Reggie at the wheel. “I should’ve guessed museums wouldn’t be your guys’ things.”

“No, no,” Luke protested, laying out as much as possible in the back. “It was interesting, Jules.”

“I did like what I saw,” Reggie agreed, easing them back onto the motorway. “It was just a bit. Y’know. Too much after a while?” 

“Yeah.” Luke nodded, leaning forward a bit so he felt more involved in the conversation. “Like, everything was super interesting, but then we just kept doing the same thing, and there was so much information, and so much of it was just extra reading that I didn’t really need.”

“And then my eyes glazed over,” Reggie added.

Luke waved a hand in agreement. “Exactly. And then everything just became too much effort to focus on, and that’s when I got bored. But what I did see was so cool.”

Julie smiled fondly and twisted around in her chair to kiss him. “I’ll go back with Flynn and Carrie, and maybe Nick,” she repeated. “And you and Reg can go fight in the salt river with Bee and Al and Wils.”

“Okay,” Luke agreed, leaning forward when she pulled back. 

“No making out,” Reggie reminded them, even though he sounded like he was smiling. “I don’t wanna have to listen to you two getting it on for another five and a half hours.”

“That’s fair,” Luke acknowledged, leaned back. “Does anyone mind if I drop off for a bit?” 

“Nah, go for it, man.” Reggie twisted his arm back for a fist bump. 

Luke huffed a laugh and bumped his knuckles against Reggie’s. “See you crazy cats on the flip side.”

“I hate you,” Julie and Reggie told him in unison, neither of them turning back to look at him. “So much.” 

——

“Lukey.” 

“Hey… Luke, babe. C’mon.”

“Lucinda-”

“Okay, okay,” Luke groaned. “I’m up. What do you guys want?” 

He was pretty sure it was Reggie’s hand carding through his hair. “Dude we’re in El Paso. You crashed for, like. Five and a half hours. Did you not sleep last night?” 

Luke sat up properly, pausing midway up so Reggie could untangle his hand. “I did, I guess I was just tired anyway. I did drive for ages this morning.”

“That’s true,” Julie agreed. “But anyway, we’re at the motel that Flynn and Carrie booked for us.”

“Oh, shit.” Luke scrubbed a hand over his face and climbed out of the car, stretching out. When he looked back to Julie and Reggie, they looked similarly flushed. “Food?” 

Julie rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand. “There’s a Chinese place around the corner. I’ll go grab some stuff while you guys get the room?” 

Luke nodded and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “M’kay. Can I have salt and pepper chicken, wonton soup and king prawn dumplings?” 

“I know your order, dork,” she reminded him, then pointed a finger at Reggie. “And yours, Reej. I’ll be twenty minutes, text me the room number when you’re sorted. Okay?” 

“Yes, ma’am,” they said in unison, fist bumping immediately. 

Luke threw his arm around Reggie’s shoulders and grabbed his bag with his other hand. “Ready to go part-ay all night?” 

Reggie snorted and leaned into his side, swinging his duffle over his shoulder, then grabbed Julie’s suitcase as well. “I’ve been driving for, like, six hours, man. My plans for the evening are to inhale that Chinese faster than you have ever seen Chinese be inhaled, and then I’m gonna pass out until I’m forced to wake up.” 

“That sounds pretty fantastic,” Luke admitted, steering him towards the reception. “You do occasionally have good ideas, I guess.”

Reggie drove his elbow into Luke’s ribs. It would’ve sucked, except it was Bobby’s go-to response to unwanted contact, and Luke probably had thicker skin, or deadened nerves, there. “I have good ideas all the time.”

Luke dropped his arm from around Reggie’s shoulders. “Harsh, man. And I know you do, button, I was just teasing. You’re way smarter than me.” 

“I know.” Reggie grinned, streetlights making his eyes glitter. It shouldn’t have been as pretty as it was. “I just wanted to hear you say it.”

“Oh my god, you bastard.” Luke felt a smile creep onto his face, and dropped his bag so he could lean forward like he was gonna tackle Reggie.

Reggie laughed delightedly, putting his bag carefully on top of Julie’s suitcase as though he was gonna fight Luke. “Bobby  _ is  _ my favourite, and Alex has been trying to instill sarcasm in me since fifth grade. What’re you gonna do? Fight me?” 

Luke crouched to wrap an arm around Reggie’s knees, standing up carefully once Reggie folded at the waist. He waited a moment so Reggie could tap out if his angle was too awkward for his chest. 

Reggie just giggled and let himself swing. “How are you gonna carry all our stuff  _ and  _ me?” 

Oh no. Your friends laughing was…  _ not  _ supposed to be that cute. 

“... fuck.” Luke sighed, hoping to god nothing about his voice had changed, and put Reggie back down. “You win, for now.”

“I’m sure you can reign victorious after dinner,” Reggie reassured him, patting his cheek. “You can build a little pillow fort and everything.” 

“You’re an asshole and I hate you.” Luke grabbed his bag again, and Julie’s suitcase.

“I love you too, Lukey,” Reggie singsonged, grabbing his bag, and jogging to catch up. “... we’re gonna make a pillow fort, right?” 

Luke grinned to himself, firmly ignoring the weird feeling in his chest, and opened the reception door, letting Reggie go through first. “Yeah, man, we can make a pillow fort. On the bed or on the floor?” 

Reggie hummed in thought. “On the bed, I think. Then we don’t have to pad out the floor.”

“Smart thinking, I like it.” Luke stepped forward to get their room key, and when he turned back, Reggie was typing frantically on his phone. “Hey, Reg, whatcha doing?” 

“Asking Willie if they’ll call Lexi a bitch for me,” Reggie said absently as he finished typing.

Luke ruffled his hair. “Attaboy,” he joked, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “What did Al do?” 

Reggie jammed his phone in his pocket and followed after a moment. “I just felt it was necessary, y’know? He probably insulted Bobs or something. Can I get first dibs on the shower?” 

“Yeah, ‘course, man.” Luke unlocked their room and dropped the bags so he could throw himself onto the bed. “Oh my god.”

Reggie shut the door, laughing. “Dude, we’ve been driving for one day, what the fuck?” 

“It’s comfy, okay?” Luke defended himself, waving his arms and legs like he was trying to make a snow angel. “Get your shower and let me make sweet love to this bed.”

When Reggie spoke next, his voice came from near the bathroom door. “Remember that me and Jules have to sleep in that, if you wouldn’t mind?” 

“Don’t care,” Luke mumbled, waiting until the door clicked shut behind Reggie, then dived for his phone and quickly called Alex, adding Bobby to the call as soon as he picked up.

Alex groaned. “Dude, what the fuck do you want? It’s eleven at night, this better be good.”

“Is this you panic-realising you have a thing for Reggie?” Willie asked, and Luke could practically  _ see  _ their smug grin, chin hooked over Alex’s shoulder. 

There was a moment of silence, then Bobby, Alex and Luke spoke at the same time. “ _ What?”  _

“Oh, yikes,” Willie sighed. “Is that not what this is?” 

Luke spluttered for a moment. “Well, it is. But. I- you knew? I didn’t know, how did you know?” 

Bobby cleared his throat. “You’ve been mooning over Julie for years, man. You’re not. You still like her, right? She’s basically my little sister, man, if I have to fight you for Julie’s honour, I will kill you.”

“What? No, I’m still very much in love with Jules,” Luke said immediately. “Wills, you’re my favourite, I love you, how fucking long have I had a thing for Reggie?” 

“Like… the whole time I’ve known you?” Willie said slowly. “I’m gonna be honest, I thought this road trip was some weird allos threesome thing, but if it’s not… uh. Good luck?” 

“Just tell Julie,” Alex and Bobby told him at the same time. 

“What do you take me for, a piece of shit?” Luke snapped, hoping his boys would know it was stress, not anger. “Obviously I’m gonna tell Jules.” 

Julie cleared her throat from the doorway. Reggie had probably remembered to tell her the room number, seeing as Luke had forgotten. “Obviously gonna tell Jules what?”


	3. Knock Knock. Who’s There? Healthy Communication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Heya, Julie-bean, how’s road tripping with my most and least favourite people?” Flynn said as soon as they picked up the phone.   
> “Well, Reggie has a better belt than me when energised by the magical powers of Dolly Parton, and i’m prepared to die mad about it, and Luke slept for six hours in a car and no one has taught me how to get more than thirty seconds in a moving vehicle, and i’m prepared to die mad about it,” Julie replied breezily. “How’s life without me there to brighten it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo kids, I’m really sorry this is a week late! I ran out of meds for a week and like. Stopped functioning for the whole time, so that’s why I didn’t write anything last week. Anywho, up this week we have a side of actual healthy communication to go with your polyamorous relationship, so enjoy!

Julie knew Reggie and Luke would be liable to pass out as soon as they’d finished eating, but she still wanted to give them at least the opportunity to go line dancing like they’d promised Reggie, so she volunteered to go get food so she could call Flynn and see where the best place to try it out would be. 

“Heya, Julie-bean, how’s road tripping with my most and least favourite people?” Flynn said as soon as they picked up the phone. 

“Well, Reggie has a better belt than me when energised by the magical powers of Dolly Parton, and i’m prepared to die mad about it, and Luke slept for six hours in a car and no one has taught me how to get more than thirty seconds in a moving vehicle, and i’m prepared to die mad about it,” Julie replied breezily. “How’s life without me there to brighten it?”

Flynn snorted. “Oh, dull and dreary as always, you know how it is,” Flynn said, then hissed something, presumably to Carrie. “Care keeps trying to impart physics on me from her online lectures, and Jules, I love this woman to the moon and back, but i love  _ no one  _ enough to learn about an island of stability.”

Carrie made a disgruntled noise in the background and Julie laughed, pulling her phone away from her ear long enough to check google maps for the closest Chinese. “Didn’t you raise your science grades by ten percent in tenth grade to get put into AP classes for junior year  _ just _ to have an in with Carrie, the twin sister of the rhythm guitarist in the band you have managed since we were all thirteen?”

Flynn paused. “This is not the time for you to be my oldest friend, Jules, this is the time for you to be my staunchest defender.”

“Oh of course, of course. Put me on speaker so i can tell the she-devil herself to stop tormenting you with physics,” Julie joked, ducking under the awning of the Chinese place as a light drizzle started up. “Care-bear? You hear me?”

Carrie laughed, suddenly a lot louder? “Yeah, Julie, i can hear you.”

Julie did her best to clear her throat menacingly, feeling her cheeks heat when a passerby eyed her weirdly. “You can’t keep forcing Flynn to learn physics for you, it’s incredibly mean.”

“Look, Jules,” Carrie said, voice tight with restrained laughter. “The STEM nerds of our gang are me, Bobstard, and Nickinald. Bobstard is a chemist to the core and doesn’t even know the correct definition of a fucking anode, and Nick is an atomic physicist, which i greatly respect, but it means our common interest is space, and sometimes i don’t want to nerd out about space - that’s a lie, i always want to nerd out about space - but sometimes i want to nerd out about the latest in superheavy elements, and i would very much like to do that with my favourite person, thus combining two of my favourite things.”

“...That was a very convincing argument,” Julie admitted. “Flynn, sweetheart, how about you just trade physics time for social media logistics time?”

“I hate that you’re always right,” Flynn complained. “Who had the audacity to give me such an amazing best friend?”

Julie grinned, scanning over the menu to make sure they had everything her bo- Luke and Reggie would want, as well as her favourites. “Someone who knew how amazing  _ my _ best friend was gonna be and decided she needed someone just as awesome just to keep up?”

Carrie made a retching sound. “How are you two more sickening than any of the couples? I’ve seen Bobby give his psychedelics articles looks with less chemistry than what’s between you guys.”

Flynn was silent for a moment, and Julie took the opportunity to scribble down the numbers for what she wanted. “Babe… did you just make a pun?”

“No,” Carrie said, far too quickly.

“You  _ so _ did,” Julie said, just as Flynn said the same thing. 

“I don’t make puns.” Carrie sniffed derisively.

“You just did,” Julie insisted. “Anyway, as much as your comedic growth is noted, appreciated and supported, i gotta nip inside to order dinner, i just wanted to know where the place you said we could line dance was? Can’t take Reg to Texas and not take him line dancing.”

“Of course of course,” Flynn agreed seriously. “There’s a place in the Basset Place shopping mall near the food court that does a thing every Sunday. It should be on tonight.”

Julie eased the shop door open. “Thanks, babes, that’s great. Would you be the most amazingest best friend ever and-”

“Call ahead to make sure you’re welcome?” Flynn predicted. “Of course i did, I am, in fact, incredible.”

“Absolutely, you are,” Julie agreed. “I’m gonna buy you two the  _ biggest _ bouquet known to man when we get home. It’s gonna be even bigger than the congratulatory one you got me when Luke proposed.” The words sent warmth bubbling through her. It really hadn’t been long enough for the whole thing to settle in, but then again she didn’t know if being Luke’s fiancee - and having him be  _ her _ fiance - would ever get old. She already found herself playing with her ring whenever her mind wandered. 

“That’s impossible,” Carrie said dismissively, even though her tone was pleased, and Julie could practically see the small smile she had. It was the patented Wilson Smile that both twins and their father seemed to adopt when they were genuinely touched by something and didn’t know how to express it. “I had to grovel with Joe to get them to give me the phone number for their florist.”

Julie moved aside to let someone go in before her. “Yeah, but you’re forgetting that i am, objectively, Joe’s favourite child.”

Flynn made a shushing sound. “Care, hon, you know it’s true. Anyway, Jules, you have to go, and now i have to console my big baby of a girlfriend, so thanks a bunch.”

“Always,” Julie joked. “I’ll call you guys when we land in Biloxi tomorrow night?”

“Yeah, sounds good. Goodnight, have fun line dancing, i love you,” Flynn agreed, making a kissing sound at the end. 

Julie echoed the sentiment and hung up, stepping into the restaurant. 

\----

“Obviously I’m gonna tell Jules,” Luke was saying as she eased the mortel door open, crate of take away in hand.

“Obviously gonna tell Jules what?” Julie asked, setting the crate down on the dresser. 

Luke blinked at her owlishly for a moment, and she was pretty sure she heard Bobby and Alex saying “oh, shit,” over the phone. “Hey, sunshine.”

“Hi, Lukey, hey guys” Julie sat down next to him, poking his side until he rolled over and held an arm out. “What do you need to tell me?” 

“Hi Jules, bye Jules,” Alex said quickly, and Bobby echoed a similar sentiment before both of them hung up. 

Luke waited until she’d curled into his side. “So. Reg.”

Julie hummed. “What about him?” 

“You ever…” He paused, shifting until he was laid on his side, facing him. “You ever feel like he fits with us?” 

“Obviously,” she said, scanning his face for some kind of clue for what he meant. “He’s one of our best friends, of course he does.” 

He tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “No I mean… do you ever feel like he fits with us like we fit with each other? I know this is sudden, and I don’t even know where it came from, but Wills said they’ve known the whole time they’ve known us, and I don’t. I’m not saying you’re not enough for me, because jesus, Jules, you gotta know how in love with you I am… but. I don’t even know, I only realised and called the guys ten minutes before you got here, I haven’t thought about it much.” 

Julie nodded slowly, taking a moment to consider it. 

She did have to admit that it made sense. The boys had always been a package deal the four of them, and they reminded her of herself and Flynn, really, with how involved in each others’ lives they all were, despite their different interests and personalities, and in working with them as Julie and the Phantoms, she knew their closeness wasn’t something that could be broken by the industry or the fans, or their romantic pursuits. She’d expected to watch them grow apart a bit, once she’d met them properly at Alex’s wedding, but they never acted like they’d lost him to the hell of marriage, just like Willie was now a sibling forged in blood rather than a close friend. Even so, Reggie and Luke were still a bit… different. Not necessarily closer, because god knew there probably wasn’t anything closer than the four of them that wasn’t incredibly unhealthy, but different in the same way her relationship with Luke was. It had been hard to spot, because they clearly loved Alex and Bobby with the same ferocity, and never acted on it, but it  _ was  _ different. 

Julie was pretty sure finding out your fiancé was in love with his husband slash best friend was supposed to hurt a lot more than it did.

It did hurt, for sure, but not like she’d lost Luke. Not even like she was anywhere close. It was more a slight ache of loss for the vision she’d built up for their future - their new apartment, with the boys and Carrie and Flynn occasionally crashing, but mostly just her and Luke, singing shitty renditions of their favourite songs and dancing around the kitchen and Luke laughing at her as she attempted to learn to cook for the millionth time - as something else, fuzzy, but still there, started to form instead. It was surprisingly easy to reimagine their future and just… add Reggie to it, which was a bit of a leap, and a lot of expectations to pile on just because Luke had admitted something was there, but also. Well, it was Reggie. He could belt better than her when it came to the magical possession of Dolly Parton, and twirl her around a room like not even Alex could, and him and Luke together in the kitchen were a dream team of silent communication and random back and forth improving to classics. 

She’d never felt like she was losing time with Luke when it was the three of them, or even just her and Reggie. Whenever Luke asked if Reggie could crash a date because he’d had a shitty day, it never ended up feeling like her, and her boyfriend, and her boyfriend’s friend who was moping about. It was just Julie and Luke and Reggie. 

“You’re right,” she said after a moment, brushing the pads of her fingers across Luke’s cheekbone. “He does fit with us.” 

“Yeah?” He breathed, eyes wide and hopeful in a way that took her breath away.

“Yeah.” 

“Okay, lady and gent, who is ready to part-ay?” Reggie burst into the room, in jeans instead of his “road-trip joggers” and a cutoff shirt that she was fairly sure was Luke’s, trademark flannel missing. “I know I said I just wanted to inhale food and then sleep, but  _ then  _ I remembered that you guys promised me line dancing, and, like, if I don’t line dance while we’re in Texas, I  _ will  _ cry.” 

Julie pressed her forehead against Luke’s for a moment, then sat up properly. “Eat your food, first, Reg. Flynn and Care got us in at a place five minutes from here.” 

Reggie clicked his fingers then pointed at her. “You, Julie Molina, are hands down, my absolute favourite person on this whole entire planet, and I am willing to testify that under oath.” He rifled through the crate of food, grabbing his and sitting awkwardly on the chair in the corner. “So, you two looked pretty cosy when I came in. Did I interrupt anything?” 

Luke snorted and stood up to grab the crate, bumping his shoulder against Julie’s as he sat back down. “Oh, yeah, button. You being in the room next door is  _ really  _ what gets my blood pumping.” 

Reggie stuck his tongue out. “As it should, I’m  _ the  _ sexiest person alive. Bobbers and Nick told me so.” 

“Ah, yes,” Julie agreed, stealing a piece of duck from Luke’s carton. “The award of man considered most sexy by two ace guys. That’s a real prize you’ve got there.” 

“I’m sure Wills agrees with them,” Luke added, in between forkfuls of rice. “That’s gotta be a record, right, sunshine?” He grinned at Julie, waiting for her to nod emphatically. “Three ace people thinking you’re sexy?” 

Reggie laughed into his chow mein. “Absolutely, I’m just  _ that  _ gorgeous.” 

——

Reggie was, of course, a natural at line dancing. 

He insisted he’d never done it before, but Julie joined in with Alex and Dirty Candy regularly, and she’d seen even Carrie take a hot minute to pick up choreo when it was from a new style, and either Reggie really was just  _ that  _ in tune with Dolly Parton, or he’d done it before. 

The instructor was good, and Julie was picking it up okay, even if Luke was having a bit of a time with it, but as soon as Reggie had run through the steps once, slowly, he was throwing himself in with the people who were clearly regulars, charming the whole room as he bounced around, cheeks flushed with exertion and eyes shining. 

Six hours ago, Julie would’ve called the warmth spilling out of her heart and flooding her veins some kind of sisterly fondness, maybe. With Luke’s words echoing in her mind, she could admit to herself that it definitely was something more that. 

“C’mon, Jules,” Reggie encouraged, suddenly way too close. “Grab my hand, I’ll guide you through it.”

Julie glanced helplessly at Luke, who was still stumbling awkwardly as the instructor fussed over him. He looked up just in time to shoot her a wink, then went back to tripping over his own feet. She took Reggie’s hand cautiously. “Okay, show me what to do, then, cowboy.” 

Reggie laughed and spun her around jokingly, then slowly guided her through the steps, shaking her gently and cheering when she finally got it right. 

Julie grinned up at him breathlessly. “Think you can get Luke through this?” 

“Absolutely not,” Reggie disagreed immediately. “Look at that mess.” He pointed at Luke, who looked close to exhaustion. “What am I supposed to do with that? You could bribe him with kisses while I whip him into shape?” 

Julie laughed and leaned her head against his shoulder. “I think we’d make a pretty awesome team.”

He kissed her hair absently. It was something all of them did, casual non-face kisses were a language they all spoke and revelled in, along with the cuddling and the honesty and the hand-holding, but it felt different, now. Partially because they’d acknowledged how much Reggie meant to them, but also partially because Reggie didn’t know. It felt a little like taking advantage, letting him stand so close and touch her line that, not knowing how she felt. “We absolutely do make a pretty awesome team,” he agreed. “C’mon, now that you’ve got that step, let’s see what else you can do?” 

——

“I am never dancing again in my entire life,” Luke complained as soon as he was awake enough to string words together.

Julie laughed and kissed his chest lightly before rolling out of bed. “Aw, did’ya pull somethin’ tryna learn how’ta walk without falling over?” She asked tiredly, rifling through Reggie’s duffle until she found the jumper she was looking for. 

“I think I pulled everything,” he replied, draining the glass of water he’d left on the nightstand. “How long before we need to set off?” 

Julie shrugged and choked down a couple spoonfuls of leftover rice. “We’ve got loads of driving to get through, so as soon as possible, really.”

Luke scrunched his nose up. “Ugh. You going first?” 

“Yeah.” She nodded. Julie really wasn’t a morning person, but she hadn’t driven at all yesterday, and it wouldn’t be at all to make either of her -  _ the  _ \- boys start off that early when they’d pulled their weight yesterday. “Do you wanna go see if you can get coffee and, like, a cupcake or a muffin or something? I’ll try and wake Reg up.”

“Sounds good, sunshine.” Luke kissed her temple and then her nose. “Are we gonna finish our conversation from last night soon?” 

“We will,” she promised, leaning up on tiptoes to kiss the corner of his mouth. “But for now, we need caffeine and sustenance.” 

Luke smiled and nodded, smoothing his thumb across her jaw. “Yes, boss. You uh. You look really good, by the way. In his jumper.”

Julie felt her cheeks heat and rolled her eyes fondly. “You’re just a possessive bastard,” she joked.

“I am  _ not _ ,” he gasped, clutching his chest in mock offense. “Okay, maybe a little. But can you blame me?  _ He  _ looked real good in my t-shirt last night, too. I am but a simple man.” 

“That’s fair,” she admitted. “But, he’s not ours, and I’m still hungry.” 

He laughed and hugged her close briefly. “I love you.” 

“I love you too. But, food.” 

“I’m going, I’m going!” He raised both hands on the air and backed out of the room, still laughing.

Julie shook her head, and probably grinned stupidly at the door for a minute after he’d shut it behind him, then turned to Reggie. “Hey, Reg.”

Reggie groaned. “Go’way.” 

“It’s Julie,” she reminded him, sitting next to his head. “And we’ve got a lot of driving today, so you gotta get up.”

“I don’t wanna,” he complained.

Julie ‘tsch’ed aoftly and ran her fingers through his hair, scratching his scalp lightly. “I know, hon, but you gotta.” 

“Oh, oh, that’s nice,” he said, pushing his head into her hand. “Like that.” 

Julie snorted. “C’mon, housecat. It’s time to get up. Luke’s getting food.”

Reggie perked up immediately. “Food? Oh, why didn’t you say so?” He rolled out of bed clumsily, grabbing his joggers and hopping around the room on one leg as he attempted to put them on. “Bacon? Jules if there isn’t bacon I will  _ die.”  _

“I’ll text Luke and tell him to get bacon,” she promised, grabbing her phone and typing out a text quickly. “How’d you sleep?” 

“Like a baby,” he told her, rooting through the pile of clothes on the floor until he found his t shirt. “I don’t like being held while I sleep, and Luke is a very cuddly sleeper, but he gives off amazing amounts of heat. With you there to intercept the cuddles? Amazing.” 

She smiled to herself, texting Flynn quickly to ask if they’d had a conversation with Flynn about her fiancé supposedly crushing on his best friend for several years, as she probably had, before looking up at Reggie. “He is a very cuddly sleeper. I benefit from that greatly. Glad to be of service.” 

He grinned and raked a hand through his hair. “And how would you like me to pay for said services, Miss Molina?” 

She pretended to consider it. “Well, I suppose if you would be a darling and put the Chinese boxes in that big bin outside while I clear up our clothes, I could call us even?” 

“That’s a steep price, but I suppose I can swing it,” he joked, stacking the boxes up. “Anything else you require, ma’am?”

“That’ll be all for now, Mr Peters,” she declared, putting on the best grandiose Queen’s English she could. “But if you could wait by the car once you have seen to your duties, that would be much appreciated. Myself and Mr Patterson Will meet you there.”

“Of course, my lady.” He bowed, waving his arm ridiculously, then backed out of the room. 

She grinned to herself as she shoved clothes back into their correct bags and did her best to straighten out the sheets. When she checked her phone after fifteen minutes of trying to make the room look as much like it had when they’d arrived as possible, Flynn still hadn’t replied. She sighed and carried their bags out to the car. When she got there, Reggie was perched on the bonnet, legs crossed beneath him. 

He waved cheerily. “I don’t have the keys, Lukey does.” 

She groaned and dropped the bags down next to the wheel, climbing up next to him. “Bastard.”

——

Julie hated driving. She hated driving, and she hated sitting in a car doing nothing for hours, and by the time they reached Biloxi, after eighteen hours of either driving or watching Luke and Reggie driving, she genuinely wasn’t sure which was worse. 

For the first couple of hours, driving hadn’t been too bad, despite her usual hatred for it. At the early hour they’d chosen to wake up at, the roads were quiet, and neither Reggie nor Luke could be bothered to be much of a distraction, Reggie falling back to sleep as soon as he’d finished inhaling his coffee and bacon sandwich, and Luke dozing in and out as Julie drove, watching the sun rise in front of them. Once normal human hours had been reached though, the roads got busier, and the boys quickly got bored, and by the time they reached San Antonio, she’d decided to declare an hour of time alone, drinking sweet tea in a cafe and desperately texting Flynn and Carrie about the newest development, now that they’d finally woken up. 

Back on the road, this time just in the back seat, Julie didn’t even try attempting to listen in. She grabbed earphones out of Reggie’s jacket pocket, pulling the jacket over herself like a blanket, and ket Stephen Fry’s Mythos lull her to sleep, drowning out what was probably Luke and Reggie bickering tiredly. 

Julie didn’t manage to sleep all the way to Biloxi, but she got enough of it out of the way rhat the last three hours didn’t feel too awful, even if it was still way longer in a car than she would’ve liked. Reggie was back at the wheel at that point, so when they passed a twenty four hour McDonalds at a service station, it was easy to convince him to pull in and get them all food. Usually Julie would feel at least slightly guilty about the volume of junk she’d just shovelled down her gullet, but considering she needed to eat enough to make up for the lack of dinner  _ and  _ fuel her for tomorrow’s drive to Miami, she imagined a mini Flynn yelling at her for beating herself up, and just let herself enjoy the salty, artificial goodness of everything. 

Arriving at Biloxi three hours later, all three of them were ready to drop. Julie would’ve loved to grab Luke aside so they could continue their discussion, maybe clearly  _ communicate  _ about how they wanted to proceed with Reggie, and compare notes on what Flynn and Willie had said, because Luke was definitely also getting advice, he wasn’t an idiot, but as soon as she’d finished talking to the concierge, she was giving Luke pleasing eyes until he scooped her up, exhaustion crashing through her.

“Sunshine, you slept for six hours on the drive here, how are you still tired?” He asked, voice hushed and eyes bloodshot. 

Julie shrugged as best she could given her position. “Sleeping in the car isn’t the same as sleeping-sleeping.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Reggie agreed from where she was propping herself up against the wall. “It’s just not… not restful.”

“Exactly,” Julie said, waving an arm at him. She grabbed the room key out of the breast pocket of Luke’s jumper and opened the door, letting him put her down carefully. “Now im just gonna-” she motioned to the bed, and staggered towards it until her knees hit the edge. She didn’t even bother to get changed, just flopped down on top of it. “Ni’night.”


	4. Now That’s What I Call Mutual Pining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Reggie woke up in Biloxi on the third morning of their roadtrip, he kind of felt like the world was ending. 
> 
> It wasn’t that he didn’t love spending time with Luke and Julie, because they really were two of his favourite people alive, it was more that he loved spending time with them a little too much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo kiddos!   
> Honestly I have no idea what happened with this chapter. It got a bit sad and yearny, then I got fibro fog so I gave Reggie fibro fog... irdk. I hope it’s still enjoyable 
> 
> Disclaimer: as always, all mentions of fibro stuff is based on my own personal experience and may not be representative of what you or the people you know may have gone through 
> 
> This chapter finally brings us to the fulfilment of the mutual pining square of my jatp bingo board 
> 
> Enjoy!

When Reggie woke up in Biloxi on the third morning of their roadtrip, he kind of felt like the world was ending. 

It wasn’t that he didn’t love spending time with Luke and Julie, because they really were two of his favourite people alive, it was more that he loved spending time with them a little too much. Sure, Luke was technically his husband, but the whole marriage had been a sham anyway, just a joke between two best friends, and the point of the road trip was literally for them to get a divorce so that Luke could marry Julie. Reggie was no expert, seeing as the only happily married couples in his life were familial figures thim - Rose and Ray, Trevor and his spouse, Joe, Alex and Willie - but he was pretty sure you weren’t supposed to have a crush on  _ both  _ halves of a married couple. Julie and Luke weren’t married yet, but really that was only an official thing. They’d been smitten for each other since the moment they’d met, and Reggie had never felt like this before. It was weird. They weren’t doing anything to exclude him, and it wasn’t like he was just sat around watching them make out, but there was still a strong sense of  _ something _ boiling up under his ribs every time Luke just leaned over to kiss Julie and every time Julie just made space for herself within Luke’s space, that made his chest ache. It wasn’t quite jealousy, not like when he’d dated a girl in senior year who’d clearly been more into Bobby, it was more of a quiet longing and loneliness pooling together at the crux of his collarbone and spilling out into his chest cavity. It was manageable at the moment, but it had been nonexistent only two days ago, and by the time they got back to LA, Reggie imagined it would’ve filled his lungs and suffocated him silently. 

There were worse ways to drown. 

It wasn’t too bad anyway. He was still involved. Nights were still spent only centromeres away, soaking in the impossible warmth Luke generated, Julie’s pillow spray surrounding him. Days were still spent cooped up in the car or being dragged around by the pair of them, but he spent most of the time with them just wondering how much more freeing it would feel if he could just lean across and kiss Julie when she was sat in the diner in San Antonio, slanted sunlight streaming through the window and making her hair glow as dust mites swirled around her, laughing at some stupid joke Reggie had told, if he could cuff Luke round the head then pepper his face in kisses when he said something particularly sweet. 

Reggie drove the first four hours to Panama Beach, letting thoughts spin around his mind about the coulds and could nots and what the fuck to tell Alex, who’d definitly notice something was off, and Bobby, who’d fight god if he thought someone had hurt him. 

It was a pretty cool drive, really. 

Luke and Julie were curled up in the backseat together, whispering about something Reggie couldn’t make out over the eight hours of Dolly Parton playlist he’d put on, and the sea came into sight fairly soon, the expanses of blue offering no condolences but no judgement either. 

There were a variety of solutions, really. He could talk to them about it immediately to see where they stood, but that one seemed selfish. It had taken so long for them to manage to clear up time to get this fucking divorce, and springing something like this on them when they were only nine hours out from the office in Miami was entirely self serving. He could tell them later, once they’d divorced, but there was no real way to time that that didn’t seem home wrecker-y. His options were either before, during, or after the wedding, and all of those options led down roads with one destination - losing all of his friends in one go. He could sit on it forever and do something dramatic, like… on his deathbed, but Alex and Bobby and Willie and Flynn and Nick and Carrie and Kayla were too smart or too nosy or an unhelpful combination of the two to let him get away with never speaking on it, and he’d never gotten much from shoving his feelings down anyways. He could tell his friends and hope they forgave him and didn’t think he was weird, which would probably go well, since they were a mish mash of identities and backgrounds and interests, and none of them would judge him for anything like being in love with two people. Maybe they’d judge him for being in love with a married couple, but they wouldn’t hold it against him for long.

Or he could just… fuck off for a while after the wedding. Disappear and let time and distance heal the aches and pains and the “wish I were him”s and “wish I were her”s, until he’d forgotten what is was like to lay in a Queen bed with Luke in the middle and Julie’s pillow spray overwhelming him. 

Reggie wasn’t an expert at being in love, but he was an expert in pouring time and energy and effort into people who were too wrapped up in each other to notice, and it wasn’t a road he was willing to walk again. It was probably unfair to compare being in love with two people who cherished him as a friend to having parents who didn’t notice him half the time because of their incessant need to tear each other apart, but if it was, well… that was between him and the grey blue of the horizon.

“Hey, Reg?” Julie asked, voice barely loud enough to make it past the wall of Jolene. “You okay?”

Reggie blinked, clearing his throat. “Yeah, ‘course. Why wouldn’t I be?” 

Julie made a quiet sound. “I don’t know, you just seem off.”

“I just don’t like being able to see the sea and not  _ be  _ in the sea,” he reassured her, pointing at where the ocean was just visible. “I just wanna be in it.”

“Oh, that’s so valid,” Luke said. “I wish we’d brought surfboards.”

“Don’t tell me you can both surf,” Julie complained. “Leave some talent for the rest of us, god.”

“She says, with the best voice ever,” Reggie joked, leaned back in his chair. “Of course we can surf, we grew up in LA. Can’t you surf?” 

“I can do most of it,” she insisted, voice all tight like it always went when she blushed. “I just can’t do the bit where you stand up, I always fall over, or I don’t get up in time.” 

“We’ll teach you,” Luke promised, like coaching someone through surfing was in any way a two man activity. “Get you up on your feet in no time.”

“I’ll watch and cheer,” Reggie suggested. “Anyone want a drink from Maccies?” 

“I would genuinely drink blood if it had caffeine in it right now,” Julie said. “I’m so tired.”

“So… two iced coffees for the gays in the back, an Americano with a quadruple shot for the gay in the front,” Luke translated. 

Reggie snorted. “Yeah, okay. You keep your vampire fiancée in the back with you Patterson, I’m too pretty to die young.” 

Luke made an offended noise. “Are you saying I’m not?” 

Reggie made eye contact with him in the rear view mirror. “Uh. Out of the two of us? Definitely.” 

Luke considered that for a moment. “Yeah… that’s fair.” 

“It is,” Julie agreed. “But I want both of you to teach me to surf. You can’t leave me alone with Lukey in the water, Reg, he’ll drown me for my fortunes.” 

“If I was gonna drown anyone for their fortunes, it would not be you, it would be the Wilson twins,” Luke argued as Reggie pulled into the next drive thru. “Bobby goes surfing with us all the time and he’s still alive, so you’ll be fine.” 

“That’s because you’re just waiting for him to amass enough wealth for you to pay off anyone who investigates him,” Julie said. 

Reggie rattled off their order, asking for a round of cinnamon rolls as well as their coffees, as Julie and Luke kept bickering about whether or not Julie would survive surfing alone with Luke. 

“All I’m saying, is that I enjoy kissing you far too much to drown you,” Luke was saying when Reggie passed back their coffees. “And I’d have no one to cuddle.”

“As  _ if,”  _ Julie scoffed. “Reggie is probably a great kisser, and he’s just as pretty as me, so you could kiss him, and our entire friendship group is just a bunch of touch starved idiots that cuddle all the time.” 

Reggie choked on the first sip of his coffee. “What?” 

Julie looked up, catching his eye in the mirror, cheeks flushed. “Oh. Erm.” 

“Reg  _ is  _ a good kisser,” Luke agreed. “We kissed at the alter, it was pretty fun. Better than Bobbers, who almost threw up on me. Not  _ quite  _ as good as Allie, but I’m gonna go ahead and assume that that was because you were pissed as a fart.” 

“I wish I was surprised,” Julie sighed. “I really do.”

“Please,” Reggie interjected, draining half his coffee so he’d have a moment to think. “Like you haven’t kissed Flynn.”

Julie paused. “Okay, that’s fair.” 

“Thank you.” Luke grinned, using his straw as a spoon to eat the whipped cream. “Sometimes you have attractive friends and you gotta kiss them. Or they’re Bobbers and had a terrible first kiss and want to check that it really is just that you hate kisses, not the memory.” 

“Terrible first kiss?” Julie asked, a sharp edge to her voice.

“It’s our Bobbit, he sorted them out,” Reggie reassured her. “It was glorious. An awesome dick-kidney-solar plexus-nose combo that I believe put the guy in hospital.” 

“D’y’ever wonder who’d win if Care and Beebob properly fought?” Luke asked after a minute. “Because Bobstard has been boxing since forever, but I fully believe Care could kill me with her shoes.”

“Care would win,” Julie said immediately. “She’s mean enough that Flynn is into her. She’d emotionally destroy him.” 

“Oh, true,” Luke agreed. “Gotta love our lesbians.”

“Absolutely.” Reggie nodded emphatically. “We’d have stopped functioning at some point without them.” 

“We’re driving to get a divorce three years after we got married while drunk in Miami, because I proposed to the girl I met two weeks after our wedding,” Luke reminded him. “We’re not functioning, they’re just keeping us alive.”

“And good on them,” Julie added. “I’ve seen all four of you - on separate occasions - do things that could kill you.”

“It’s part of the charm,” Reggie explained. 

“Exactly.” Luke nodded. “There’s something about watching Al confuse the dosage of Reg’s painkillers and his anxiety meds almost take four times his recommended dose that really endears him to you.” 

Julie made a distressed squeak. “Why are you guys like this?” 

“Childhood trauma?” Luke suggested.

Reggie nodded his agreement. “The time we all god electrocuted fixing my amp in the rain?”

“Could’ve been those hot dogs that almost killed us in seventh grade,” Luke added.

“Oh, yeah.” Reggie nodded. “Minimal attachment to our continued existence?” 

“It’s not that I don’t wanna be here,” Luke said, grinning at Reggie as he quoted Bobby. “It’s simply that God made peanuts taste incredible and then also made me allergic to peanuts, and I can’t see what I’m supposed to take from that if it’s not that I’m meant to be here for a good time and not a long time.” 

——

“So,” Reggie said as soon as Alex picked up the phone. “I have a problem.” 

Alex sighed. “You’ve been into Jules and Lukey literally since forever, please just ask them out.”

Reggie paused. “Uh. What?” 

“Oh.” Alex laughed awkwardly. “Was that not what this was about?” 

“No, no, it is.” Reggie brushed his hair out of his face. “I just - how did you know?” 

“We’re the same person with different childhood trauma, and if I liked girls and frat boys I would be head over heels,” Alex reminded him. “... and Willie told me. Don’t even try it with me.”

Reggie huffed a breath, watching as the strands of hair he couldn’t keep out of his eyes blew upwards. “What do I do?” 

“I have no idea,” Alex said frankly. “But… in my professional opinion, as your favourite person in the world, and Lukey’s third favourite, and Julie’s favourite gay dude, as well as Willie’s husband and therefore privy to all of their annoyingly intelligent thoughts, I think they feel the same.”

“You also think there’s an eventuality where you can get between Bobbers and food he's allergic to,” Reggie retorted. “Anyway, I don’t really need advice, I don’t wanna think about it. I would just like to be hugged by a tall human, and there aren’t any tall humans on my trip, so I need you to just be really nice to me.” 

Alex ‘tsch’ed lightly. “M’kay. You gonna come stay with me and Wills for a couple days when you get back? It’s been a while since we’ve hung out just the three of us. I can kick them out to go have an ace lads night if you want it to be just us. We could make ramen.” 

Reggie shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t really wanna third wheel or kick your spouse out, but if you want me to, I could go for the three of us hanging out.”

“As if you could third wheel, I missed you,” Alex told him, tone far too sincere. “You gonna deny me Reggie cuddles? My doctor said they’re good for anxiety.” 

“... no,” Reggie said slowly. “But you definitely want them and not just Willie cuddles?” 

“Why would I want Willie cuddles when I could have Reggie and Willie cuddles?” Alex asked, then paused. 

“Because I’m your husband, and Reg is in love with your other best friend, who’s engaged, and you’re terrible with mopey people,” Willie spoke up, and there was a faint sound like he was kissing Alex hello. “But, Reg,  _ I  _ am not terrible with mopey people, and you  _ are _ our favourite non-Molina-”

“He’s basically a Molina,” Alex interjected.

“You’re our favourite non-Molina,” Willie repeated. “So if you wanna come over and make s’mores with the blowtorch and pretend to camp in the living room, that would be cool.” 

“Okie,” Reggie agreed, yawning into his arm. “I gotta go pretend I don’t have feelings. Bye bye.” 

“Call Bobby, he’s great at that,” Alex advised. “See you later, sweetheart.” 

Reggie hung up and made his way back to the car, hoping he wasn’t stumbling too obviously.

If the way Luke immediately slung an arm over his shoulders, patting his cheek gently, was any indication, he probably was. “Woah there, button. What’s gotten into you? Are you okay?” 

Reggie blinked at him blearily. “Yeah, yeah. M’fine. Just tired. Got into Biloxi late last night ‘n’ we had an early start.” 

Luke nodded his understanding. “Want me to sit in the back with you so you can sleep until we hit Orlando?” 

“No, no.” Reggie shook his head. “Don’t leave Jules ‘lone in the front. She hates driving.” 

Luke rolled his eyes fondly. “I think she’d hate it more if you got a flare or fibro fog from being too tired, Regbert. Did you take your meds last night?” 

Reggie scuffed the toe of his shoe against the floor. “I mean. No? But. Well, I took half? Because we got in at, like, one am, and we set off at six, and if I took all of it then I would’ve been too tired to drive.”

“Jesus,” Luke muttered, shepherding him into the backseat. “Have you got them now?” 

“Yeah, they’re just in my bag.” Reggie nodded, rubbing at one eye. “Uh. The big one.”

“I know which bag, button,” Luke reassured him, patting his cheek again before disappearing to rifle through the boot. 

After a minute of Reggie trying to count the fibres of the chair in front of him while a thick fog saturated his brain, Luke reappeared, blister pack and a bottle of water in hand. “Can you take these, please?” 

“Mhm.” Reggie nodded and took them off Luke, making sure to count them out. “Okay. All four. Can I have the water please?” 

Luke passed him the bottle, texting someone that Reggie assumed was Julie. “All done?” 

“Yup,” Reggie said after a moment, sticking his tongue out like Bobby used to make him do when he’d avoided taking his meds the nights he’d wanted to stay up. 

Luke snorted. “Right, thanks, Reg. Jules is just gonna get you a hot chocolate from the coffee place, and then we’re back on the road and you can sleep.”

“Neat.” Reggie flashed him a thumbs up, relaxing back into the chair. 

After a few minutes of waiting, Julie appeared with a cardboard drinks tray. She paused by the door to kiss Luke hello, then leaned past him to hand Reggie his drink. “Heya, Reg. Luke says you’re not feeling so hot?” 

Reggie shrugged. “Fog,” he explained. “Lukey says I can sleep to Orlando.”

“I’m gonna sit with him in the back, sunshine,” Luke added, brushing a stray curl behind Julie’s ear. “Unless you need me to sit in the front? Reg was worried you’d get lonely.” 

“No, no, that’s fine, but you’re really sweet, Reg.” She shook her head. “Four hours is nothing, I can do that. You boys just look after yourself.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the pair of them promised, both offering a two finger salute, though Reggie’s form was definitely less tidy than Luke’s. 

Julie climbed in the front and twisted back to smile at them fondly. “See you guys in Orlando.”

——

Reggie wasn’t sure how he missed the break at Orlando, but waking up with his head in Julie’s lap as the sun set in Miami, he definitely couldn’t say he regretted it. 

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Julie said quietly, running her fingers through his hair. “We’re here.”

Reggie yawned into his arm as he sat up. “Man. What time is it?” 

“Half eight,” she answered. “You slept like the dead, all the way through our stop in Orlando. Lukey tried to wake you, but we figured after a bit that you just needed the sleep.”

Reggie nodded slowly, looking around. “Heya, Luke.”

Luke smiled at him from the driver’s seat. “Evening, button. You sleep well?” 

“Amazing,” he answered honestly. “Gotta start crashing in the day if I’m gonna sleep like that.” 

“I still don’t know how you do it,” Julie told him. “I had a neck pillow and a blanket, and I’m still pretty sure the only reason I managed to sleep yesterday was that I was exhausted after driving for eight hours.”

Reggie shrugged, resting his head on the back of the passenger seat. “Maybe you should’ve asked for one of us to play with your hair. It’s very relaxing.” 

Julie laughed and opened the car door. “I’ll consider it for the drive back.”

Reggie climbed out and grabbed his duffle once Luke had opened the boot. “I know I said you owe me a fancy dinner for our last night married, but I think I’d rather just get some daiquiris on room service and have a sleepover.”

“A sleepover in a hotel?” Luke asked, grabbing his bag and Julie’s suitcase. “Sounds fun. But… there’s something we wanna talk to you about first.”

Reggie’s heart dropped into his stomach and something twinged under his collarbone. “Oh. Uh. What about?” 

“Feelings,” Luke said, scrunching his nose up. “My favourite thing, obviously.” 

“Of course,” Reggie agreed, rhythmically zipping and unzipping one of the pockets on his back as his mind started racing. Had they figured out how he felt for them? He’d only really recognised it yesterday, so that seemed unlikely, but Alex had said Willie had known, which meant it had probably been a thing he’d just not been aware of for longer than that, which meant it was something they could have picked up on. “What feelings?” 

Julie caught up to them on Reggie’s other side, grabbing his hand. “Our feelings,” she said gently. “Luke, babe, can you go get our hotel room key?” 

“‘Course, sunshine.” Luke reached round Reggie to squeeze Julie’s shoulder then disappeared inside.

Reggie turned back to Julie after watching him leave. “I. What’s going on? You’re not having second doubts are you? You gotta know how gone on you Lukey is. He’s not being a dick, though, right? Jules, I swear, if he’s backing out on you I  _ will _ fight him for you. Not fight him for you like fight him for your hand, fight him for you, like, fight him on your behalf. I totally think you could deck him, but you got your nails done for that shoot and I really don’t want you to crack one, Carrie’s once did my nails and I cracked one and it hurt so bad, and-”

“Woah, Reg, hon, breathe,” Julie cradled his jaw with both hands, and waited for him to nod his okay before continuing. “This is nothing bad, okay? We shouldn’t have sprung it on you in the car park, and for that I’m really sorry, but I promise it should be a good thing.” 

Reggie nodded slowly, trying not to focus on his nice Julie’s hands felt on his face, or how close her face was to his. It was hard though, what with her looking at him that intensely, eyes as dark and intense as ever. “Okay.” 

Luke reappeared after a moment. “Okay, guys, we’re good to go.” 

Reggie tore his eyes away from Julie, feeling guilt and shame flash hot in his stomach. “Sorry. Right. Um. Where are we?” 

“Third floor.” Luke waved a room key. “And the lady at the desk says their daiquiris are excellent.”

“I think I need ten,” Reggie joked, sticking to Luke’s either side in case Julie decided she needed a hand to hold again. “Maybe just a bottle of rum by itself.”

“Not after last time,” Luke warned. “Last time you had a whole bottle of rum, you broke five windows and then had a panic attack because you hate the sound of breaking glass.”

Reggie raised both eyebrows. “Huh. Don’t remember that.”

“Probably for the best,” Julie said, leaning forward to stop the lift closing. “How about you just stick to daiquiris?” 

“Yeah… sounds good,” Reggie agreed, leaning against the wall of the lift and watching as the numbers slowly increased until it reached three. “This is us.” 

Reggie waited until their door was shut behind them and Luke had flipped out onto the bed before bringing it up again. Really, he didn’t want to, but he understood it was a conversation that needed to be had. Besides, if they had figured him out, he was probably better off trying to book a flight back to LA for as soon as he could realistically get one after signing the divorce papers. “So… um. Feelings?” 

Luke groaned and sat up. “Right. Feelings.”

“God, you boys are all the same,” Julie teased, sitting at the foot of the bed. She patted the space next to her. “C’mon, Reg, sit.” 

Reggie sat down cautiously. “Is this a feelings regarding me thing, or a spat you need me involved with? Because I gotta tell you guys, I do  _ not  _ mediate, it’s not my jam. I totally would’ve don’t get me wrong, because I love you guys to bits, but there’s the sticky business that is my childhood trauma that means I am, y’know, eternally terrified of being the middle man, and it’s kind of non-negotiable.” 

“No, no, god, no.” Luke loosely grabbed his wrist. “Jesus, Reggie, we know you don’t, we’d never ask you to do that.”

“Bobbers likes laughing at our issues too much for us ever deprive him,” Julie added, knocking her shoulder against his. “But we aren’t talking about that.” 

“O-Oh.” Reggie nodded awkwardly, panic building until it pressed out against his ribcage. “So this is a feelings involving me thing? Because, honestly, I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean for anything to happen - nothing did happen, I swear - it just kind of crept up on me, and I wasn’t gonna say anything because I didn’t wanna ruin anything, a-and-”

“Woah, Reg, what’re you on about?” Julie cut him off. “I’m sorry for interrupting, but we were gonna tell you that we like you, but that is… not where you seem to be going with this.”

Reggie glanced between them, clearing his throat. “Oh… so this isn’t you hating me for liking you and your fiancé and telling me to never talk to you again?” 

Luke shoved his head lightly then pulled him in for a hug. “No we’re not telling you to never talk to us again, you dork. I’d drop dead if you didn’t text me every night to teach me about a new kind of dinosaur.”

“That’s… so not the point.” Julie shook her head.

“Well, it is,” Luke argued. “Our point is that we’d kind of like you to tell us your dinosaur facts whilst laying in bed with us, instead of texting them.”

“Y’know what? That actually works,” Julie admitted. “Nice going, Patterson.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are much appreciated if you enjoy!


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